Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…
[thinks hard]
Bluto: the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!
Some days just cry out for a good quote from “Animal House”.
At least that is the belief of Alex Bogusky (Crispin Porter + Bogusky Creative Chief), who is my new hero. According to him, entrepreneurs are the ones who will help lead the US out of the recession, since small businesses represent 75% of our gross domestic product. It is true – smaller shops have advantages in flexibility in offerings, can get ideas off the ground faster and have more at stake when it comes to true innovation and you get the A team – because that’s all there is.
So as an American, do your patriotic duty, hire a small agency today and help save your country!
I read an article in the NY Times over coffee this morning (I still like the paper version!) entitled “No More Easy Money” and was a bit surprised by the reaction to the bad economy by the executives who were “born from a place where they knew no failure…” Wow, I don’t know an entrepreneur (and I know a LOT) who can say they have sailed through the last two decades – where have these people been?
From my experience, I started earning my chops after 9/11, as did many of my entrepreneurial friends. We sat down, blew up our company as we knew it and started over, in a new direction. New, unproven paths are never easy – but innovating in pharma is brutal – but if you can actually pull it off – well, the world is (potentially) your oyster. Patience is also required to “make” success happen – that for me is the hardest part.
Truthfully, I didn’t really know if the brass ring would be ours – we had come so close so many times, but hadn’t quite grabbed it – but now I feel we have an iron grip. I wish those movie execs strength – they are kind of like trust fund kids, except now the funds have run out – they will have to learn how to stand on their own feet – and start learning how to really be leaders.
Focus is a beautiful thing. It is very helpful when a company is focused on a specific area of business (like connecting pharma and physicians through interactive channels) you know what you have to offer and people know what they are buying from you. Credibility comes into play, but once the “big players” in pharma have bought your products, youâre golden.
So, where do you go from there? Focus is again key when a company has higher aspirations such as an industry wide sampling closet that is completely mobile and a global mobile sampling solution. These do not pose insurmountable challenges, but they’re not easy either and that makes them interesting goals to have.
We’ll be making them happen, not just wishing it so.
And we are drinking triple lattes around here! Just landed two of the largest pharma companies as clients, so needless to say, we are feeling really excited! It’s really something to compete against big players for huge stakes and even better to win.
*Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
